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Insurer's offer doesn't hold water

DEAR HARRY: I was a bachelor until last year. I moved here from Nebraska and soon married a widow who is 10 years younger than I and who has two children. One is on his own, but the younger son is entering college in the fall. I have adopted this child, a

DEAR HARRY: I was a bachelor until last year. I moved here from Nebraska and soon married a widow who is 10 years younger than I and who has two children. One is on his own, but the younger son is entering college in the fall. I have adopted this child, and I want to be a good parent socially and economically. We have a lot of similar interests, and we get along well. I spoke with an insurance agent who is a friend of my wife's. I was up-front with him, telling him that I am a 50-year-old diabetic, and I never applied for insurance before. I want a $500,000 term policy to care for both our boy and my wife. He told me that some companies won't cover diabetics at all, and others will but at a stiff additional premium. To get around that, he said I have the advantage of never having applied before. He proposed a way of getting around the urine sample required in the medical exam by secretly substituting his urine. He insisted that it was OK, and he has been doing it for others with no problem. Should I go for this?

WHAT HARRY SAYS: Are you out of your cotton-pickin' mind? How about ethics? Legality? Let's assume you get through the examination and the policy is issued. If you should die soon afterward, the company will most assuredly do some investigating and will probably turn up your diabetes. If you die later, your death certificate may get your heirs on the short end of the stick. Go to a different broker and pay the extra premium.